1 Table of Contents Steering Committee Meeting Subject And

Table of Contents Steering Committee Meeting Subject and Schedule for the Next Annual Meeting Election of a New Treasurer Membership Policy Noyes Proposals Giving the Resthouse a Negakilowatt Making Economics a Tool for Sustainability -- by Dana Meadows Rough Notes on a New Economics -- by John Peet Announcements Upcoming Conferences on Gaming and System Dynamics You Too Can Be in the Los Angeles Times Sabbaticals in New Hampshire News From the Members Stories, Quotes, Jokes Egypt Prepares for Greenhouse Floods Some Views on Wilderness A Limerick for the Ozone Layer The Market Can Save the Elephant Steering Committee Meeting The Balaton Group Steering Committee met December 2-3, 1989, at Joan Davis's house in Zurich, Switzerland, to plan the next annual meeting and discuss other business of the network. Present were Hartmut Bossel, Joan Davis, Bert De Vries, Dennis Meadows, Dana Meadows, Niels Meyer, and Chirapol Sintunawa. Here is a summary of our discussions. If you have comments or suggestions, please communicate them to one of the Steering Committee members. Subject and Schedule for the Next Annual Meeting The meeting will be held from August 30 to September 4, 1990. The bus to Csopak will leave Budapest the afternoon of August 30; the introductory session will be that evening. The bus will return to Budapest after lunch on September 4. As customary, the mornings will be devoted to plenary sessions, afternoons to whatever working groups members form, evenings to informal presentations, slide shows, game demonstrations, computer demonstrations, videotapes, singing, saunas, etc. 1 The Steering Committe discussed the "embarrassment of riches" many people felt at the last meeting. In the unstructured afternoons and evenings there was too much to do -- too many interesting people to talk to, videotapes to watch, presentations to attend. In a sense this is "good trouble" and the Steering Committee is glad the meeting was so full of worthwhile offerings. But we did ask ourselves if there is any way we can structure these periods more helpfully, to be sure people can allocate their time in an informed and satisfying way. One suggestion was that we make and post a fixed schedule by which each videotape will be shown only once, instead of the come- and-play-what-you-want policy we've had so far. Another was to limit each evening presentation to only 20-30 slides. Any other ideas? We could use some guidance from the members on this one. The topic of the plenary sessions next year will be, by popular demand, "Making Economics a Tool for a Sustainable Society." Bert De Vries will be in charge of organizing this part of the meeting, with help from other members of the Steering Committee. At a time when our East European members have the necessity and challenge of re-thinking their economic systems -- and when the rest of us should be rethinking ours as well -- it seems appropriate for the Balaton Group to take on as a formal topic of discussion one that has always lurked underneath all our discussions. Why is it that our traditional economic paradigms, accounting methods, indicators, information signals lead society to exploit unjustly and unsustainably both natural resources and human beings? Is it possible to re-think economics, to structure a new economic paradigm, preserving the best of the old and adding whatever is needed to ensure the long-term welfare of people and of nature? We explore this topic further later in this Bulletin. The tentative schedule for the plenary sessions is listed below. At this time all speakers are not confirmed. Friday, August 31. Introducing Sustainable Economics. What are the failures of the old economics, both market and planned? From what we know about systems, what should be the major design features of an economics of justice and sustainability? First there will be a discussion of the role of information as conveyed by indicators in policy making, then some theoretical approaches for correcting and/or complementing economic indicators. possible speakers -- Herman Daly (World Bank), John Sterman (MIT System Dynamics Group), Roefie Hueting (CBS, The Hague), also 2 possible A. Aganbegyan, R. Repetto, D. Blades, H. Peskin, M. Slesser, J. Peet, B. De Vries.. Saturday, September 1. New Accounting, New Indicators. What is actually going on at the U.N., at the World Bank, in various countries to restructure national accounts, to recalculate GNP, to give societies better signals about their own performance? During this day "state of the environment" reports will be summarized for several countries, and possibly for several corporations. The emphasis will be on those quantifiable data that can be made available, and the underlying criteria and aggregation problems. possible speakers -- Lucia Severinghaus (Academica Sinica, Taipei), Miklos Persanyi (Ministry of Environment, Budapest), Hans Opschoor (Free University of Amsterdam ), Wim Hafkamp (TRN, The Hague) Sunday, September 2. New Economic Policies. From debt-for-nature swaps to ecotaxes, what new ways are being discussed and implemented by which governments may use economic policy (prices, taxes, debt financing, and other instruments) to produce a more sustainable use of resources and the environment? Some cases will be presented and discussed to illustrate how information on the state of the environment can be used to change behavior. possible speakers -- Niels Meyer (on Ecotax Scandinavia), Alvaro Umane (on debt-for-nature swaps), Udo Ernst Simones (FRG), Calestous Juma (Kenya), Hartmut Bossel. Monday, September 3. An Economics not of Quantity but Quality. What of the underlying paradigm that has led to our current economic system? Can we just "fix up" the system without threatening the deepest assumptions and values of the industrial revolution? How do you found a modern economy on concepts of quality and community ethics, instead of the concepts of quantity and individual wants? What values are threatened if decision- making is confined to market-place negotiations based on quantifiable indicators? What help can there be from gaming or other social devices to explore both quantitative and qualitative values? possible speakers -- Herman Daly (World Bank), Ashok Khosla or Aromar Revi (Development Alternatives, New Delhi), Dennis Meadows and Bert De Vries (on gaming, especially the heat-trap game), Willis Harman, Dana Meadows. Election of a New Treasurer For reasons that have to do with the Byzantine operations of the United States Internal Revenue Service, Betty Miller is no longer able to serve as the official treasurer of the INRIC and has resigned from that post. She will continue to act as our 3 bookkeeper and organizer, performing all the essential services she has always carried out to hold us together and keep us legal. The Steering Committee elected Dana Meadows to replace Betty as INRIC treasurer. Membership Policy The large attendance at the last annual meeting brought up a question that the Balaton Group/INRIC has discussed many times, but has never had to resolve until now -- the question of our own limits. We have hit some limits now, in both our ability to support the expense of the annual meeting, and in the number of people our traditional meeting place, the oil-and-gas workers' resthouse in Csopak, can accommodate. Therefore INRIC is faced with a classic dilemma. Should we expand the limits -- find more money, find a larger meeting place? Or live within them? If we can't work out an answer to this question, how can we expect the world to do so? Assuming that we decide to live within our current limits, many further questions come up. What, exactly, defines a Balaton Group member? Are members individuals or organizations? Who has a right to receive the Bulletin and attend meetings? We have never charged for either of these privileges -- should we? For whom should the limited financial resources of the Group support travel to the meetings? Who is eligible to receive Noyes exchange grants and other Group resources? In wrestling with these questions the Steering Committee recognized that in fact we have both individual and organizational members. To maintain both kinds of members, Dennis Meadows put forth the following proposal: (NOTE: This is not an adopted policy The Steering Committee expects that this proposal will be controversial and eagerly solicits comments and alternative suggestions. The matter will be settled finally at the next Annual Meeting.) INRIC membership means free subscription to the Bulletin, full support for room and board at the annual meeting, travel support if necessary, and eligibility for all other INRIC resources. Interested nonmembers can receive the Bulletin for a subscription fee that covers the real costs of printing and mailing the Bulletin. Membership should be limited to 21 centers plus 20 individuals who represent only themselves, not their centers. The centers should be geographically distributed: 7 West (including Japan), 7 East, 7 South. When the limit is reached, no new center 4 or individual can be admitted unless an old one drops out. Both centers and individuals shall be evaluated for membership in terms of contribution to sustainable resource use in their own regions, plus contributions to training, research, and effectiveness of other centers and individuals in the network. Annual meetings will be limited to 60 people, preferably 2 from each center, 2-3 from possible new centers, 10 people attending as individual members, and special speakers invited to contribute their expertise to that

Load more